New London voters pass municipal budget

By DAN SEUFERTUnion Leader Correspondent

NEW LONDON – Thanks to selectman Janet Kidder, the town removed almost $300,000 from its municipal budget at Town Meeting Wednesday night.

Voters passed a budget of $8.02 million, down from the budget committee’s proposal of $8.3 million, after Kidder pointed out that the budget included a $282,907 payment for the new Sunapee Wastewater Project, which wasn’t needed yet.

.“The wastewater project is behind schedule, so, as Janet pointed out, we don’t need to make a payment on it until we deal with the 2016 budget,” said Town Clerk and Tax Collector Linda Hardy.

Article 4, which included the budget committee’s recommended $1,643,513 for public safety, was amended by voters to add $8,086 for additional training for police dispatchers and to pay for an additional part-time police dispatcher, as the selectmen recommended...The only article to fail was Article 17, which proposed a switch to a March Town Meeting, to annually be held the second Tuesday in March. It failed by 12 votes, Hardy said.

In elections Tuesday, Nancy Rollins won a selectman seat vacated by Tina Helms, who chose not to seek reelection for the three-year seat. Rollins tallied 650 votes to Douglas Homan’s 452. John Grosvenor Lewis tallied 12 votes...For three vacant seats on the budget committee, there were five candidates on the ballot. Earning seats were William Greene with 621 votes, Suzanne Jesseman with 577, and Christopher Lorio with 456. Bruce Hudson, with 428 votes, and James Deangelis, with 356, failed to earn a committee seat...Another hotly contested race with five candidates, was for two Tracy Memorial Library trustee positions. Those winning trustee seats were John Garvey with 500 votes and Frank Anzalone with 360. The three candidates that did not earn a trustee seat were Marsha Johnson with 357 votes, David Reeves with 235, and Marianne McEnrue with 229...dseufert@newstote.com..